The Paranormal Database

Name Caller

Location: Bristol - King William III public house, King Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1998
Further Comments: Several staff have claimed to hear their names being called out, even though no one else is in the pub with them. Phantom footsteps have also been heard climbing up the rear staircase.

Kettle Boiler

Location: Bristol - Kings Chase Shopping Centre, Regent Street, Kingswood
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1976
Further Comments: Several shops in this centre were affected by a brief poltergeist outbreak. Events included small items moving by themselves, the sounds of footsteps and rustling, and a kettle turning itself on.

Suicide

Location: Bristol - Kings Cinema (currently the base for the City Council's Housing Department)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: One of the rest rooms is said to be particularly cold - the area is haunted by the ghost of someone who took their life by leaping from the balcony.

Woman in Crinolines

Location: Bristol - La Taverna Dell' Artista restaurant
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: It is unclear whether it is a single woman or several which have been seen drifting around this arty restaurant.

A book written about the haunting was published in 1800.

Beaten Children

Location: Bristol - Lamb Inn, Lawford Street and West Street (demolished 1910)
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 5 November 1761 - November 1762
Further Comments: This polt remained on the site for a year. It became infamous for throwing glasses, disturbing the occupants through constant tapping and rapping, and beating the children. The activity ceased after the family sought out the help of a cunning woman who said they had been cursed and provided them with a counter-ritual.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Location: Bristol - Leigh Woods
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Brunel Unknown, teenager's experience in 2014
Further Comments: Brunel's shade has been reported near the site of the suspension bridge - he designed the structure but died before it became operational. In 2014 it was reported that two teenagers who spent the night in the woods had heard a child's voice and had photographed a ghostly figure (although the photographic image could have been pareidolia).

Monk

Location: Bristol - Library adjoining the cathedral
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 16:30h (reoccurring)
Further Comments: This phantom monk dressed in grey has always been seen around the same time.

Injured Sailor

Location: Bristol - Llandoger Trow public house (closed as of April 2019)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: This old inn is the home to a ghostly sailor with a severely injured leg. Another version of the story says that the ghostly presence was a young boy (also with a permanent injury). More recently, a visiting TV production team and their psychics claimed more than fourteen entities haunted the pub.

Victorian Figure

Location: Bristol - Market Bar, St Nicholas Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A Victorian woman has been reported in the area, along with an unknown man whose clothing dates from the twentieth century.

Young Girl on Horseback

Location: Bristol - Monument on a grassy hill next to the M32
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This female jockey broke her neck in a fall while attempting to ride down the hill - her shade, still on horseback, has been seen since her death.

Shadowy Figures

Location: Bristol - Odeon cinema, Broadmead
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: Several members of staff have reported seeing people milling about the auditorium, disappearing if approached. A seat in the third row of screen three is said to be home to a shadowy apparition.

Ape

Location: Bristol - Old mansion, Hotwells (since demolished)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1831 - 1869
Further Comments: After moving into the house, the owner found it impossible to keep his servants - they left after claiming to have encountered a ghostly ape or, at other times, a large black hound. The owner himself heard loud bangs and crashes but was unable to find a source. The site would later be converted into three cottages, but the haunting continued in the area and the new buildings left to go to ruin. Reports of the ghostly dog would continue in fields in the area for many years.

Sarah Siddons

Location: Bristol - Old Vic theatre
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2010
Further Comments: Sarah's boyfriend hanged himself at this theatre, and her ghost is thought to continue to mourn the loss here. Architect Andrzej Blonski reported seeing Sarah's ghost, wearing a long, white crinoline dress, in 2010. Another member of staff reported hearing a female voice telling him to 'get out'. The other spook at home here is that of a scenic painter called Richard who died in an accident while working. Richard continues to move the props around.

Priest

Location: Bristol - Oldbury Court Stately Home, Whiteladies Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1941, 1970s, and circa 1990
Further Comments: This figure hid away from his enemies in a priest hole but became trapped and slowly starved to death. A small group of teenagers in the 1970s watched the monk walking through a wall, and he may have been spotted by several friends around 1990. A handful of female spooks are also said to frequent the house - they and the phantom priest disturbed nine women working for the BBC who stayed at the site in 1941.

Housekeeper

Location: Bristol - Oldbury House, St Michael's Hill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1940-1941
Further Comments: A ghostly housekeeper was not the only phantom to haunt this former BBC building, which was used as a hostel for staff during the first part of the Second World War. A thin man who resembled a monk was spotted, as was a group of five girls. A child's sobs were reported, and frequent banging heard. The BBC eventually moved the residents out.

White Lady

Location: Bristol - Over Court (located near Cribbs Causeway)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Around Christmas (reoccurring), last seen 1937
Further Comments: This area has the reputation for being haunted by the phantom of a woman who took her own life, though one variation of the story states that her husband shot her. Though injured, she ran away, only to stumble into a fishpond where she drowned. Her hovering ghost was last seen by a band of eighteen carol singers.

Parry

Location: Bristol - Parry's Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The lane takes its name from a well which once stood in the area, which in turn was named after a man who slit his own throat next to it. Parry's ghost remained in the area for many years after his death.

Footsteps

Location: Bristol - Passageway between Shaftesbury Avenue and Banner Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Footsteps with no human source are said to echo along this short walkway.

Jenkins Protheroe

Location: Bristol - Pembroke Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Executed nearby, Protheroe (or Protheror) was once a beggar who discovered that more money could be made by murder (until he was caught and hanged).

Woman with Carpetbag

Location: Bristol - Phoenix House, Redcliffe Hill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: This ghostly lady carrying a carpetbag was observed by a caretaker and security guards.

Black Monk

Location: Bristol - Private building along Broad Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1940
Further Comments: The cellar of a building along this street is reputed to be haunted by one of the city's black monks.

Man with a Bob

Location: Bristol - Private flat along Henacre Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1990
Further Comments: Resident Kim Gye was forced to move out after meeting a ghostly man with a bobbed haircut in her flat. The apparition appeared to her young son several times, who said that it 'was coming to get him'. The ghost was finally laid by a medium.

Footfalls

Location: Bristol - Private residence in Totterdown area
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1994-1999
Further Comments: The residents and their friends witnessed a few strange events, including hearing disembodied footsteps up and down the staircase, doors to the pantry opening and closing, extremely loud banging all over the walls late at night, and objects which disappeared for days before reappearing either in strange places or balanced in strange places.

Teenager

Location: Bristol - Private residence, Air Balloon Road, St George
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1998
Further Comments: After builders working on the site heard footsteps coming from an empty room, the family living here called in a medium. The occupants were informed that the house had four ghosts, including a teenage boy and an older woman in a black dress who held a lantern. Marching would also be heard around the site.

Roar of Anger

Location: Bristol - Private residence, Frenchay
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2006-2008
Further Comments: Witnesses here heard walking and thumping throughout rooms and corridors. Loud guttural groaning was also heard, and a roar of anger, from someone in the room. Two of the witnesses were able to stand either side of the sound without being able to detect the source of the sound.